Video: Govt. dilutes role of women - UNP

16 July 2013 09:16 am Views - 4446

UNP parliamentarian Rosy Senanayake said today the Government had diluted the role of women in society by preventing the Bill on increasing women representation being taken up in Parliament.

She said the Government was attempting to cover up gender discrimination in the country by hiding behind the excuse that Sri Lanka had the world’s first woman prime minister.

“I’m more than happy that the first woman Prime Minister was Sirimavo Bandaranaike. But we can’t use that to show that our Lankan women are not being discriminated upon,” she said and added that there were several areas which had gone unnoticed when it came to women’s rights.

She said the Bill, which was meant to obtain 30 per cent women representation in local bodies was presented according to parliamentary procedure and asked why the government blocked this Bill.

However she said both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker assured her they would take up the Bill at the next parliamentary sessions.(LSP & YP)